THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXII. 
No. 383. 
NOVEMBER, 1859. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 59. 
OPENING OF THE SESSION AT THE ROYAL 
VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS, BY PROFESSOR SIMONDS. 
Gentlemen, —By our assembling here to-day we are 
forcibly reminded that another year of life’s existence has 
passed into the bosom of eternity. The wheel of time has 
again completed its annual rotation, and the hand on the 
dial-plate indicates that the period has arrived when we are 
to resume the active duties of our station, and confront the 
obstacles that oppose the progress of our profession. The 
session we this day inaugurate will, ere long, be numbered 
with the past, and, like those which have preceded it, carry 
with it, we fear, too many evidences of good intentions being 
unperformed, and right resolves being unfulfilled. Let us, 
however, each in our sphere, endeavour to be faithful in every 
trust, and diligent in the performance of every duty, so that 
when we look back upon our course we may see few things 
which ought to have been done, and fewer still which ought 
not to have been done. 
For the first time in the history of this Institution we com¬ 
mence our scholastic instructions simultaneously with the 
medical schools, and this day finds crowds of anxious in¬ 
quirers after knowledge thronging the benches of the lecture 
rooms of this great metropolis, listening to the eloquence of 
philosophy, or the more sedate counsel of experience. Hap¬ 
pily we can say that not only are our own benches not vacated, 
but on the contrary being filled to repletion, we have thereby 
a firm assurance that a deep interest also pervades the com¬ 
munity on the progress of the science we profess. Besides 
veterans in the practice of our art, and aspirants to its 
honours, I see around me many kind and personal friends as 
well as others, and I desire to thank one and all, in my own 
name and in the name of my colleagues, for the honour they 
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